


Compromise & Survival

by ExhaustedSunflower



Series: There is a reason for every little thing we do [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25058632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExhaustedSunflower/pseuds/ExhaustedSunflower
Summary: The queens agree that in order to get by in this strange new world they need to form a sort of support system within each other. This is how that happens.-This is the beginning of a series. I love the way this fandom tackles nightmares and trauma and thought I might give it a try. Each queen is getting their own fic that will be longer for each of their reactions to their trauma and how they come to terms with having support after dealing with it on their own so far.
Series: There is a reason for every little thing we do [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814929
Comments: 10
Kudos: 67





	Compromise & Survival

It’s around six months into their new lives when the queens all decide it would be better to form a family dynamic in this new life. Or at least be friends. Or a support system to each other when needed. Or even civil and not fight over everything really. 

The conversation had been led by Katherine Howard, who had gotten tired of spending every waking moment being a mediator between the rest. You see, in the beginning, predictably, Catalina de Aragon and Anne Boleyn hated each other, Anne also hated Jane Seymour, who didn’t hate but was visibly tense around Anne of Cleves, (or Anna, as she’s taken to being called.) who while being very different from Jane was her short lived replacement in their first lives. Anna and Anne get along with Katherine, (Who they have dubbed ‘Kitty’ and as such the rest have started to call her the same.) so they get along with each other by proxy. Catherine Parr is the least argumentative of the bunch.

Parr never joins the arguments, not even to help Kitty mediate. And when any negativity or yelling is blown her way she quietly defuses the situation and retreats to another room. She doesn’t take sides the way that Jane or Anna will in the arguments between Catalina and Anne. Even though Catalina being Cathy’s Godmother has clearly tried to get her Goddaughter to engage and back her up a few times. Cathy always just stays quiet and looks for an out. 

She didn’t even fight Anne when the woman was screaming at her about her baby. About what happened between Parr’s fourth and last husband, Thomas, and Anne's daughter Elizabeth . Cathy had come clean about it within the first week of reincarnation, and after all the yelling and crying Cathy apologized and expressed her guilt and remorse and talked about everything she would have done differently given the chance. It had been quite the ramble honestly.

“I didn’t know until he’d already gone too far. And when I saw, when I saw I sent her away for her protection. I should have noticed far sooner, what kind of mother,” Her tone is panicked as she tries to rectify what she’d just implied. “-Not that I was her mother or trying to be I mean, what kind of stepmother brings her child into her home to care for her and doesn’t notice that kind of thing.”

“And I wanted to do something sooner but every time I brought it up-“ She stops suddenly as though she was about to reveal something she’d rather not. “I couldn’t leave him, I was pregnant with his child. I did what I could and it wasn’t enough. I’d never expect for you to forgive me, I’ll never forgive myself. It’s just, you deserved to know. She spoke about you constantly, she told me stories about you that she’d heard from her nannies and maids that saw your reign. I- I really just wanted to tell you. You deserve to know. And I am so, so sorry.”

There was silence for a bit after the apology. The other queens, who had all come to see what was happening after they heard shouting and realized it couldn’t have been her normal victims, only to see it was directed at Cathy and that Cathy was staying, all braced for the worst. Cathy looked petrified but was staying there waiting for the reaction.

‘What kind of things did she say?” Anne asked softly.

Cathy’s confusion was visible, “Sorry?”

“Elizabeth talked about me. You said it. What did she say?”

“She told me about how you danced with her in gardens after making flower crowns. She actually taught me to make them as well.” She starts slowly, like she might get this wrong. Anne lets out a strange noise that may have been a sob.

“She also said that she had your temper, but was better at holding it. People told her that her whole life. And that she wanted to have your portrait put back up in the palace after Henry died, if Edward would allow it. Oh, and she said that her and Mary mourned on your death day every year. It was true, Mary would indulge her enough to at least give her condolences and a hug every anniversary, and Liz would do the same for her.”

Cathy continued with stories and anything and everything she could possibly recall linking Elizabeth with her mother. Anna joined in after a bit with her own stories. And then Jane and Kitty as well. Catalina stayed quiet, being the only one that hadn’t met Anne’s daughter. But in an act of kindness that she rarely (if ever) shows to Anne, she sat beside her and held her hand. One grieving mother comforting another.

Anne listened to all of this, asking questions and laughing through her tears as the others recounted her daughter's antics. After the conversation had slowed to a stop Anne quietly informed Cathy that if given time, she might forgive her.

“You can’t change the past, and it hurts to know I wasn’t there for her. But you were, you clearly thought of her as your own. You did what you could as a woman in that difficult situation and you helped her through it the best you knew how to. I’m sorry you had to go through that. But it was entirely that terrible man’s fault. Not yours. I appreciate you telling me, I just need time.” 

Cathy could hardly respond besides assuring Anne that she could take all the time in the world and even if that’s not enough it’d be okay. Then she’d thanked Anne for not responding violently because she didn’t have a plan B for if that happened, gaining a small laugh from the group even though she was serious. 

-

Kitty thinks back to that conversation as she suggests they all put their differences aside. If they’d all been able to comfort Anne, the most temperamental of the bunch, then surely they could get along this far into their new lives. 

She was met with little resistance. She did have to correct and divert a few potential arguments during the long meeting, but overall the reaction was better than what shed even hoped for. Apparently they were all getting tired as well.

Cathy confessed to being tired of hiding from them all, “It just gets a bit lonely is all.”

“Mija, it’s lonely enough to be in a completely different time and not being familiar with anyone or anything around you. I’m sorry we made you feel that way.” Catalina tries to apologize. If anyone understands or sympathizes with loneliness, it’s her.

The rest nod at that and make various sounds of agreement. This new world is lonely enough without the only people you can relate to being impossible to reach. The queens all decide that it would be better to figure out the world together. Sure they were reincarnated with the bare minimum of this centuries knowledge, like what a toaster is and how modern politics work, but they have some major adjusting to do if they actually want to get by. 

Along the way it actually came up that a common struggle for the group is nightmares. Kitty confessed that on days they argue a lot her nightmares are worse, prompting another apology from Catalina. Anne asked what her nightmares are about and found herself relating to quite a bit of it. Jane mentioned, rather shyly, that she gets nightmares too, and that sometimes she dreams of Anne’s beheading and of what would have happened if she’d said no to Henry’s proposal instead. Catalina remarked that Henry didn’t know the word no. Which they all enthusiastically agreed with, happy to have all found a common ground. No matter how horrific it was. Cathy admits to having nightmares, but doesn’t go into detail about them. She prefers not to talk about them, she says.

Anna says she dreams of Kitty’s beheading. And of her death. And that each nightmare she has she feels completely helpless and can’t move. Catalina then expresses sympathy. Saying she often can't move in her dreams as well. But her dreams are different, she is normally alone. She’s either in the bottom of the ocean or in an abandoned castle and she can scream and scream and that nobody ever comes.

They all stay there until dinner, at which they all decide to leave the couches and chairs in the living room and attempt at all cooking together. Something they’ve never done before.

It’s a start, Kitty thinks to herself.

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback is appreciated! If you feel like commenting, let me know what you’d like to see from each queen. I have a lot of ideas and I can’t wait to put them out.


End file.
